Manual Data Entry on Set Leads to Reshoots

Common Obstacles

What's the problem (and our solution)?

Data entry and manual file naming lead to mistakes

If a number or letter is typed incorrectly when naming a file, it could be lost forever, or worse, cause issues leading to a complete reshoot. All that manual data entry also uses a lot of time.

Our Solution: Automated file handling

In Creative Force, the platform handles file handling, naming, metadata enrichment, asset distribution, and even creating outfits (using barcode scans rather than typing them into a spreadsheet). It means your team can get back to focusing on what they do best, instead of manually naming and renaming files.

File movement is chaotic

From outdated spreadsheets to PDF print-outs and updates sent to the team during production, it’s challenging to ensure that each step of the process is properly documented and up-to-date. Manually batching files also leads to mistakes in the workflow, if there is a workflow at all.

Our Solution: Automated File Management

Creative Force uses advanced and automated overviews, maintaining a single source of truth for everyone from production requests to final delivery. This helps teams identify bottlenecks, optimize processes, and stay on track and on budget.

Post-production files are lost

The post-production process can vary from studio to studio. Questions arise after every shoot. Will post-production be handled internally or externally? What are the naming conventions? Where should they be uploaded or emailed? How many at a time should be sent? All of this combined allows for mistakes to be made and files to be lost.

Our Solution: Automated workflows

Automated workflows route assets to internal teams or to external vendors for post-production. Detailed production overviews throughout Creative Force also let you track and assign post-production tasks to optimize your output and keep control.

Quality control varies across projects

When working on multiple projects with thousands of images, keeping track of everything is difficult, especially when the team could be located anywhere and across multiple time zones. This way of doing things leads to a loss of control.

Our Solution: Automated QC in post-production

Our workflow platform streamlines the process of delegating and tracking retouching tasks, whether you use an internal team, external vendors, or a combination of both.
Automated QC (quality control) and contextual markups and instructions ensure retouchers have all the information they need at their fingertips anywhere, minimizing errors and rejections.

A closer look

Reducing Manual Data Entry with Automation

In today's digital age, businesses need to be more than efficient – they need to be smart. Adding automation to your operations isn't simply about saving time; it's about optimizing workflows, ensuring consistency, reducing errors, and liberating your talented teams from all of the manual tasks. It's a critical step towards driving your business into the future.

The Power of Digital Style Guides

Style guides are more than just a creative reference; they're the backbone of your brand's visual identity. The Creative Force digital style guides enforce creative consistency by intelligently managing photography requirements, post requirements, and automated file naming. These guides appear automatically when and where they're needed throughout production, eliminating the need for complicated setup or development. The result is a seamless flow of creative direction that ensures the integrity of your brand's visual identity.

Embracing Automated File Handling

Manual data entry is a pain point for a lot of studios. It's time-consuming, prone to errors, and requires valuable human resources (often the photographers). It's time to leave these outdated practices behind. Automated file handling, brought to life by Creative Force, has made manual tasks like dealing with incorrect file names, navigating through outdated spreadsheets, and chasing missing shots a thing of the past. The software handles file naming, metadata enrichment, and asset distribution, freeing up your team to focus on more meaningful tasks.

Stay Informed with Real-Time Progress Tracking

The key to a smooth operation lies in timely information sharing. Real-time production tracking and advanced overviews provide everyone involved with crucial insights into the project's progress, from production to final delivery. This level of transparency helps identify bottlenecks, optimize processes, stay on track, and adhere to the budget, ultimately contributing to a more productive and efficient workflow.

Streamlined Post-Production Management

Automation isn't just for the initial production stages. Automated workflows in Creative Force can route assets to external vendors or directly to your internal team for post-production. The software's detailed overviews allow for the manual assignment of post-production tasks when needed, ensuring optimal output. With automated QC steps, contextual instructions, and deep integration with Photoshop, you can ensure a complete and more often than not, rejection-free process.

Not All Automation Is Created Equal

Indeed, any script can automate tasks, but only an intelligent solution like Creative Force can optimize your entire production workflow. This platform unlocks the true power of automation, offering integrated workflow software for all content types (images, video, and copy), simplifying complex production workflows, and providing real-time production tracking.

Metadata Enrichment Simplified

Managing large databases of product information and digital assets is a challenging task. But automation can make this task more manageable and accurate. Creative Force drastically improves metadata enrichment and streamlines the process by automatically populating custom metadata properties with data as it's ingested, captured, or updated throughout production.

Wrap-Up

The power of workflow automation cannot be underestimated. Automated solutions like Creative Force can significantly transform your creative operations by eliminating manual tasks, enforcing creative consistency, and providing real-time tracking. It's time to welcome automation and reduce manual data entry for your team, your operations, and your studio’s future.

Feature Focus

Defined Workflows to Automate More

Creative Force's foundational feature, workflows, delineates specific flows or designated routes that your product records and samples undertake during asset creation.

By employing a well-defined workflow and the software to oversee it, you can fully leverage the automation potential that Creative Force provides and reduce manual data entry.

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Questions? Let's ... expand.

How does Creative Force work?

To simplify things a bit, Creative Force enables and elevates what we call flow production – a collaborative and continuous way of producing content at scale, where assets are moved individually through the many stages of production, as soon as they're ready.

This is in contrast to traditional batch production, where a single production stage is completed for all assets before they advance to the next step. Flow production eliminates bottlenecks and hold-ups, and Creative Force supercharges that concept with automation, metadata enrichment, integrated review tools, and so much more.

How is Creative Force different?

Let's first differentiate between studio software and studio management software. Creative Force is studio management software that optimizes the processes around specific areas of studio operations, like sample management or post-production management – in some cases by integrating directly with studio software your team uses daily, such as Capture One or Photoshop.

Other studio software solutions do a fine job of solving problems within particular, well-defined areas of operation. But only Creative Force takes a holistic approach to studio operations and provides the tools to effectively increase productivity and visibility across the entire content creation process.

Who can use Creative Force?

Creative Force is built to meet the needs of brands, retailers, and commercial studios engaged in high-volume content creation for eCommerce or editorial projects. If you work professionally with any of the above, chances are you'd see remarkable improvements to your workflows with Creative Force.

Every team from studio intake to styling to capture to post-production and beyond will benefit from the extensive workflow automation, increased production visibility, and many collaboration tools.

Read some of the many great Creative Force reviews here →